Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The City had a press release last week indicating that this deal was done but they obviously forgot to tell the developer, they just "thought" we'll throw out a press release and the developer will suck it up...I sure would have liked to have been at the interview with Clifford when these famous words came out of his mouth, “Council must manage the city in a responsible manner and try to accommodate all business owners, not just one,’’ ...Cliff, it sounds so good....try that in the mirror one more time...and give your head a shake when you're doing it. This is a great project for downtown and let's hope it will gets back on track soon.Parking squabble bogs down projectDOUG GALLANT The GuardianThe construction of an 85-room hotel on top of the Confederation Court Mall is still a go as far as the developer is concerned, but the project manager for the multimillion-dollar development said Tuesday they will not break ground until the issue of parking has been fully resolved..... Mayor Lee said the $4 million pegged to address the parking issue is all that is available, there is no more money available to purchase land. In light of that they had an engineer look at the Pownal Parkade and he said it was structurally sound and could accommodate two more storeys. “That building is already owned by the city so we would not have to acquire more land. So that option, we thought satisfied all the conditions set by the developer. Ten days ago we signed a development agreement and sent it on to the developer to sign. That’s when they sent us a letter saying no (to) the Pownal Parkade.’’ Lee said the conditions, as originally laid out, have been met, and that the city is not prepared to force taxpayers into further debt to purchase land adjacent to the Queens Parkade when the Pownal Parkade could be utilized. “Council must manage the city in a responsible manner and try to accommodate all business owners, not just one,’’ Lee said. “We want the project to proceed, but if this means the project does not proceed that’s unfortunate. We feel we’ve done all they asked.’’